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The use of predictive dialers in the call center is not necessarily a new innovation. After all, call centers have relied on such methods to improve productivity for years. But, predictive dialers have come under fire from regulators and there is an increasing number of dropped and dead calls. As this is a real issue for call centers, the predictive dialer must not only be robust, it has to be innovative enough to perform in a changing call center world.

Predictive dialers such as those offered by OPC Marketing and its SpitFire solutions have shown to effectively increase productivity by reducing the amount of time each agent must spend on each call. At the same time, these solutions increase the number of right contacts for each agent, ensuring their time is used to promote the activities of the center.

Agents have a lot of things to juggle within the call center. Not only do they need to be able to effectively interact with customers, they need to know the system, understand the campaigns, be fully trained on all incoming and outgoing procedures, and deliver first contact resolution. That is a lot to manage in one shift, and it still does not list it all. When predictive dialers are in use, much of the pressure is removed from the agent as their tasks can be simplified.

Do Not Call regulations within the industry are an important element to follow on a regular basis. Considering the amount of regulations and the constant changes, this can be almost too much to monitor. Predictive dialer solutions, such as the SpitFire, help to ensure activities within the center adhere to these regulations.

Predictive dialers can also help to eliminate dead time in between calls as it matches forecasted available agents with forecasted available parties. When an agent is put on the phone with the right person the first time, the interaction is much more productive and the agent and the customer can leave with having a satisfying experience.

Finally, robust predictive dialers offer blending capabilities for those call center environments that allow agents to switch between inbound and outbound calls. This helps to create a more efficient process within the call center and a better use of all agent time.

Without the robust features of a SpitFire predictive dialer, the attributes listed above could easily elude the call center and leave managers wondering why their predictive dialers aren’t delivering such benefits. A quick look at your needs and how this solution can meet them, should be enough to take the next step toward implementation.

For more, be sure to check out the Predictive Dialer channel on TMCnet.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.